News Release

December 7, 2004

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Hydrogen's empty environmental promise
New report exposes the grim reality behind popular environmental rhetoric

WASHINGTON -- The conversion of the American auto fleet to hydrogen-powered fuel cells, a move touted by Democrats and Republicans as an environmentally sound alternative to the internal combustion engine, in fact poses serious environmental problems, according to a Briefing Paper released today by the Cato Institute.

In "Hydrogen's Empty Environmental Promise," Donald Anthrop, professor emeritus of environmental studies at San Jose State University, shows that converting to hydrogen-powered fuel cells would nearly double net energy consumption and net greenhouse gas emissions. These increases stem from the wasteful process of hydrogen creation through electrolysis that Anthrop estimates has an overall conversion efficiency of a mere 12 percent.

Although some environmentalists hope that renewable energy could be harnessed to produce the electricity necessary to deliver hydrogen fuel to the market, the required input energy would far exceed the energy produced, and the costs are prohibitively expensive.

The overall efficiency of "Steam Reforming" -- the most widespread process for the production of hydrogen -- is only about 30 percent, according to Anthrop. The process, which involves the mixing of steam and natural gas, would end up producing less energy than if the natural gas were burned in a generating plant. Powering the nation's automobiles by this method would require an increase in natural gas consumption of around 66 percent. This would have a huge price impact on an already volatile energy economy.

"The economic problems involved in delivering hydrogen to fuel cells are difficult to remedy because they stem from fundamental thermodynamics," Anthrop writes. He recommends that politicians "seriously consider the environmental impact of bringing this dream to a reality."

Briefing Paper no. 90